Customer service, what customer service?
There was the metro station staff member, who was too busy checking out the female passengers to let me through when my ticket stopped working, and who was very pissed off when I finally got his attention.
There was another metro staff member, who I needed to let me through the ticket barrier (my pass till not working), who said not one word to me, but just jerked her head in the vague direction of the ticket gate.
There was the man in the local coffee shop who forgot to give me my croissant and who got very shirty when, after waiting for 3 or 4 minutes, I actually asked for it.
Then there was the man in Starbucks, who, when I started counting out my change to pay him for my overpriced coffee drink and dry croissant, swore at me for taking longer than 2 seconds to hand over my money.
Really not loving the 'service culture' over here.
Campaign news:
Sarah Palin did not, in fact, sell the Alaskan Governors plane on ebay
After a pre-weekend lead for Obama, the polls are neck-a-neck, or even showing a McCain lead
But really, who cares about elections when there's tennis to be watched
There was another metro staff member, who I needed to let me through the ticket barrier (my pass till not working), who said not one word to me, but just jerked her head in the vague direction of the ticket gate.
There was the man in the local coffee shop who forgot to give me my croissant and who got very shirty when, after waiting for 3 or 4 minutes, I actually asked for it.
Then there was the man in Starbucks, who, when I started counting out my change to pay him for my overpriced coffee drink and dry croissant, swore at me for taking longer than 2 seconds to hand over my money.
Really not loving the 'service culture' over here.
Campaign news:
Sarah Palin did not, in fact, sell the Alaskan Governors plane on ebay
After a pre-weekend lead for Obama, the polls are neck-a-neck, or even showing a McCain lead
But really, who cares about elections when there's tennis to be watched
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The RNC says 9/11 a lot
So I fell asleep during John McCain's speech last night, but the Guardian live blogged it if you're interested in finding out what happened.
The general response is one of 'underwhelm' but last night wasn't without controversy. Before McCain's speech the Republican National Convention played a video about 9/11. The Convention was going out live on CNN and MSNBC, after the video the MSNBC host said:
"If at this late date, any television network had, of its own accord, shown that much video tape and that much graphic video tape of 9/11...it, we, would be rightly eviscerated at all quarters, perhaps by the Republican Party itself, for exploiting the memories of the dead, and perhaps even for trying to evoke that pain again. If you reacted to that video tape the way I did, I apologize. It is a subject of great pain, for many of us still, and it was probably not appropriate to be shown."
You can watch the reaction here - there's also a link to the 9/11 video itself.
Other people who say 9/11 a lot: Rudy Giuliani
Mostly watching: CNN
Mainly awaiting: Tropical Storm Hanna
The general response is one of 'underwhelm' but last night wasn't without controversy. Before McCain's speech the Republican National Convention played a video about 9/11. The Convention was going out live on CNN and MSNBC, after the video the MSNBC host said:
"If at this late date, any television network had, of its own accord, shown that much video tape and that much graphic video tape of 9/11...it, we, would be rightly eviscerated at all quarters, perhaps by the Republican Party itself, for exploiting the memories of the dead, and perhaps even for trying to evoke that pain again. If you reacted to that video tape the way I did, I apologize. It is a subject of great pain, for many of us still, and it was probably not appropriate to be shown."
You can watch the reaction here - there's also a link to the 9/11 video itself.
Other people who say 9/11 a lot: Rudy Giuliani
Mostly watching: CNN
Mainly awaiting: Tropical Storm Hanna
Comments [0]
Be afraid, be very afraid...
... American politics really isn't like British politics.
At the Republican Convention last night, Ruddy Giuliani had the crowd, several thousand strong chanting "Drill, Baby, Drill! Drill, Baby, Drill!" in support of McCain's plan to increase off-shore drilling and Sarah Palin's support for drilling for oil in the Alaskan Wildlife Reserve. It's like the Tory party standing up at their conference and chanting "Cut Benefits Now! Cut Benefits Now!". Absolutely repulsive, and really quite terrifying. No wonder American politics is so polarised.
In Sarah Palin the Republican Party has found a woman who will speak to and energise their conservative heartland in a way that McCain just can't. Many of these people may well have stayed at home, feeling that there was no one on the ticket that represented their values. That's no longer the case. They now have someone to rally around, someone who speaks to them and someone who they will through their full support behind to keep Obama and Bidden from winning in November.
It's going to be tough, it's going to be very tough.
Other thoughts from the RNC:
George Bush speaks like he is chewing gum, and expecting applause at the end of every sentence, not necessarily for what he has said but for managing to read the tele-prompter correctly.
Apparently, 'Community Organizer' is a term of abuse to the right in America, leading to raucous laughter in the RNC hall - no I don't understand why.
Giuliani only said 9/11 once last night, leading to much disappointment among those playing the Giuliani 9/11 drinking game
At the Republican Convention last night, Ruddy Giuliani had the crowd, several thousand strong chanting "Drill, Baby, Drill! Drill, Baby, Drill!" in support of McCain's plan to increase off-shore drilling and Sarah Palin's support for drilling for oil in the Alaskan Wildlife Reserve. It's like the Tory party standing up at their conference and chanting "Cut Benefits Now! Cut Benefits Now!". Absolutely repulsive, and really quite terrifying. No wonder American politics is so polarised.
In Sarah Palin the Republican Party has found a woman who will speak to and energise their conservative heartland in a way that McCain just can't. Many of these people may well have stayed at home, feeling that there was no one on the ticket that represented their values. That's no longer the case. They now have someone to rally around, someone who speaks to them and someone who they will through their full support behind to keep Obama and Bidden from winning in November.
It's going to be tough, it's going to be very tough.
Other thoughts from the RNC:
George Bush speaks like he is chewing gum, and expecting applause at the end of every sentence, not necessarily for what he has said but for managing to read the tele-prompter correctly.
Apparently, 'Community Organizer' is a term of abuse to the right in America, leading to raucous laughter in the RNC hall - no I don't understand why.
Giuliani only said 9/11 once last night, leading to much disappointment among those playing the Giuliani 9/11 drinking game
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Just what the doctor ordered...
In every television ad break over here you can't get away from the issue of healthcare. Whether it's adverts for perscription and non-perscription drugs (the side affects they list make you wonder why anyone would ever take anything), to adverts for healthcare insurance (given the privatised nature of american healthcare, this is something everyone needs but not everyone has) or adverts for perscription discounts for those who don't have insurance. To this comercial mix has been added political adverts, seeking to push the issue up the election agenda. There's one that tells you that 1.87million americans go bankrupt every year because they can't afford to pay their healthcare bills, and one where a middle class couple insist that healthcare must be the next president's priority because their friend Steve has just been disagnosed with cancer, and he's just joined a start-up which "can't afford" insurance for its employees.
But the most telling story was actually on an episode of the american version of Deal or No Deal. Sally, from the mid-West, the first in her family to graduate college and newly married. She had gone on Deal or No Deal in the hopes that with her winnings she and her husband could finally afford health care insurance, without which, they couldn't start a family.
The American healthcare system is very different from the UK, and no one over here is arguing for the american version of the NHS. But a system which means that a couple have to go on a game show to essentially win their healthcare insurance to then be able to start a family...? There's something very wrong with that.
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